After series of accusations and counter-accusations generated by the suspension of Azman from flight operations by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) over violation of safety rules, the management of the airline has finally apologised to the regulatory agency for the rash actions it took over the suspension.
The suspension of Azman by the NCAA was negatively reacted to by the airline with the management issuing a scandalous statement which accused the director-general of the NCAA, Captain Nuhu Musa, of suspending the airline to punish it for a previous disagreement between him and the airline.
Azman had in the statement accused the NCAA DG of embarking on a vengeance mission which elicited reactions from key players across the sector.
However, the latest statement issued and signed by Azman Air‘s Accountable Manager, Muhammad Hadi Abdulmunaf, has now cleared the NCAA DG of any misdemeanour as the airline said it has now established that an earlier letter which emanated from the airline and indicted the NCAA leadership of bitterness was actually authored by a staff of the airline which the airline management frowned at.
However, in putting the record straight, the airline had in a statement issued declared: “On March 21, 2021, we issued a press statement expressing our surprise and shock at a publication credited to us in which the integrity and reputation of the Director-General of the NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, came under attack as a result of the decision taken by the regulator to suspend our operations based on safety considerations.
“In the said press release, we denied management’s knowledge and approval for such careless and unfortunate allegations made against the person of the DG but promised to conduct internal investigations as to the source of the allegations. We have now conducted such in-house investigations and have established that, at least, it came from one of them hence, our disappointment with ourselves.
“It is true that we were contacted, just as other airlines in the country, to advertise our services in the ICAO magazine for which payment was to be made. We inadvertently failed to make this payment which however had nothing to do with the personal accounts of the DG but the publishers of the magazine.
“At the suspension of our services by the NCAA, an overzealous staff, who erroneously thought that the suspension was dictated by our failure to pay for the advert, without the knowledge and consent of the management of Azman, authored the unfortunate allegations against the DG.
“We wish to unreservedly tender our apologies to both the person of Captain Musa Nuhu and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. We state categorically that there wasn’t any, there is still, no iota of truth in the allegations which are capable of damaging the reputations of the DG and the NCAA. We equally extend our apologies to the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, for any embarrassment our actions may have caused him and the government.
“We regret every inconvenience caused the DG, NCAA, the Minister of Aviation and the aviation industry in Nigeria as a result of our publication of that falsehood. While we seek forgiveness for our actions, we promise to tighten our communication controls to avoid future embarrassing situations like this one caused by us.”
